The Czech Republic is ready to invest in the Druzhba oil pipeline to ensure oil supplies to Slovakia, Industry Minister Karel Havlíček said on Wednesday. This was reported by Reuters, writes UNN.
Details
As the publication notes, Slovakia, along with Hungary, has been cut off from Russian oil supplies through Ukraine since the end of January, as Kyiv is repairing damage to the Druzhba oil pipeline, which it calls the result of a Russian strike.
Slovakia and Hungary accuse Ukraine of delaying repairs, but Kyiv says it needs time.
The Czech Republic stopped using Russian supplies via Druzhba last year after the expansion of the TAL pipeline, which runs from Italy to Germany and connects to Druzhba. Earlier, Prague had already discussed the possibility of reversing the flow of the Czech section of Druzhba to Slovakia.
We offered Slovakia the possibility of using the reverse flow of Druzhba. In other words, we are ready to start investing in technical measures so that oil can be supplied from the Czech Republic to Slovakia
Havlíček said that the initial investment could amount to up to 1 billion Czech crowns ($47 million).
According to the ministers, tens of thousands of tons of oil per month could thus flow to Slovakia in emergency mode, and the annual capacity over the next two to three years could increase to 2-3 million tons.
Access to the Druzhba oil pipeline is regulated by the SBU - MFA Spokesperson Tykhyi18.03.26, 16:57